spirit that will not be bullied either in the ring or in the House of Commons, the same acuteness, the same vigilance, into the investigation of the manner in which our colonial affairs are carried on.' During the whole session Lord George vigorously upheld what he believed to be advantageous to the colonial and commercial interests of the country, and took an active part in the resistance which compelled the government to abandon their contemplated repeal of the navigation laws. He went down to Welbeck on 11 Sept., and on the 13th was much delighted at seeing Surplice win the Leger. On the afternoon of the 21st he set out from Welbeck to walk to Thoresby, the seat of Lord Manvers, a distance of some six miles, He did not arrive at Thoresby, and on search being made for him his body was found lying lifeless about a mile from Welbeck Abbey. His death was pronounced to have been caused by a sudden attack of spasm of the heart. He was buried without state in the old parish church of Marylebone, the burying-place of his house. Though his funeral was private, all British merchant ships in ports where the tidings of his death had come hoisted their flags half-mast high. Lord George Bentinck was never married.
[Lord George Bentinck, a Political Biography, by the Rt. Hon. B. Disraeli; Parliamentary Debates, 1832, 1834, 1846–8; Edinburgh Review, lxxxvii. 99; Times, 23 and 25 Sept. 1848 et passim; Gent. Mag. vol. xxx.' Annual Register, 1848; Morley's Life of Cobden, vol. i.; Molesworth's History of England, 1830-74; Sporting Magazine, 1817-8; Orton's Annals of York and Doncaster; Rice's History of the British Turf; Bell's Life, 23 Sept. 1818 et passim.]
BENTINCK, WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH, third Duke of Portland (1738–1809), twice prime minister, was the oldest son of William, second Duke of Portland, by his wife, Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, only daughter and heiress of the last Earl of Oxford. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and as Marquis of Titchfield was returned to parliament as member for Weobly in Herefordshire in 1760. In May 1762 he succeeded his father as third Duke of Portland. He was only twenty-four, possessed of immense wealth, derived both from his father and his mother, of good, if not brilliant, parts, and of unblemished character, so that it was no wonder that his support was warmly desired by the various whig cliques. The young duke at once entered into a warm political alliance with the Marquis of Rockingham, and when Lord Rockingham formed his first cabinet in July 1765, the Duke of Portland was appointed lord chamberlain of the household, and sworn of the privy council. He retired with the Rockingham whigs in December 1766, and further associated himself with the great whig families by his marriage in November 1766 to Lady Dorothy Cavendish, only daughter of William, fourth Duke of Devonshire. He now entered into most violent opposition in the House of Lords, and so great was his animosity towards the duke of Grafton, that he was absurdly suspected of being the author of the letters of Junius. The quarrel between the two dukes was so violent that the attempt of the crown to dispossess the Duke of Portland of Inglewood Forest, which had been granted to the first Earl of Portland by William III, was put down to a feeling of spite on the part of the Duke of Grafton. It is not, however, necessary to believe this story; for although the Duke of Portland obtained a verdict in his favour, the case for the crown was a good one, and by no means trumped up for the purpose. Throughout the ministry of Lord North the duke remained in opposition, and when, in April 1782, the Marquis of Rockingham returned to power, he was sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, and his brother-in-law, Lord John Cavendish, became chancellor of the exchequer.
The whigs had not learnt union in opposition, and on the death of Lord Rockingham there appeared at once two irreconcilable elements. The king appointed Lord Shelburne, the first of the new whigs, to succeed Lord Rockingham. Charles James Fox, who had been a secretary of state with Shelburne when the cabinet was formed, for personal reasons disliked having Shelburne over his head. He therefore combined with Lord John Cavendish to request the king to make the Duke of Portland prime minister, and when the request was refused they both resigned, and their resignations were followed by those of the duke himself, Burke, and Sheridan. Shelburne made Pitt his chancellor of the exchequer, and tried to fight the matter out, but the majority in both houses was against him, and Lord North combined with Fox. Before this famous coalition Shelburne had to retire, and in April 1783 the Duke of Portland became prime minister, with Fox and Lord North as secretaries of state. Much has been said of the infamy of this 'coalition,' but it was very nearly becoming the strongest ministry that could possibly be formed. The duke resigned in December 1783, when Fox's India Bill had been thrown out in the lords owing to Lord Temple's use of the king's name, but Pitt, who succeeded him as premier, had very
